This may be a newbie question but it seems that Physics in Blender are applied ‘globally’ within a scene, is that correct?
The reason I ask is because I’m trying to create a shot that appears to be a driver’s point of view of driving down a road on a snowy day. I have a successful particle system in place to enable basic snow falling, with some general turbulence and wind, but I want to create a secondary physics system that deflects the snow as the car passes through it. I tried a force field, but it appears that the force filed (Like wind) is applied globally across the entire particle system, but what I want is of the Physics system to be implemented locally (only where the car is traveling).
I believe forces only apply to particle systems on the same layer as the force. Therefore you can isolate forces to particular particle systems. You can also use keyframes to control when a particular force is active
thanks for the tip, but I realize I should’ve been more specific.
When I said “local”, I was actually speaking in spatial terms, not scene vs. layer.
So, to clarify for my system, the snow particles are falling 10 blender units in Z, but I want to set up a force field or wind system that only effects those particles that have nearly reached the bottom of their path (i.e. – a layer of wind that only exists at a certain elevation).
Objects can be used to obstruct forces like winds by enabling Absorption in the force field settings and increasing the absorption value for an object that has Collision enabled.
Be creative. Use a combination of all these controls to give the effect you want, whatever that may be. The main rule is, Fake it
Yes, that’s what I’ve tried and why I’m asking the question because no matter what I do, any force field that is applied effects the entire particle system from the emitter point – not “locally” where I want/need it to.
I believe most if not all of the forces allow you to set the minimum and maximum distance from the point of the force, that the effects are “felt”. As a basic example, if you emit a stream of particles towards a vortex, you can adjust how near the center of the force the particles can reach before they start swirling about the center. I think the falloff settings adjust the strength of the force in relation to the distance from the minimum setting. If you play with these values as well as the settings in the particle system itself that control how strong a given force affects it, you should be able to make a force appear localized. Does this help?
+1 @Storrboy Place several force fields with a maximum falloff which envelope the car, with settings that deflect the snow particles. Parent to the car, and play through. It’s what I’d try to do.
